Air Zomiba
Air Zomiba'' is an airline owned by Airplaneguy9, based in Cape Town, South Africa. It has evolved from being a small domestic airline to one of the main international airlines of South Africa. It flies today with its motto,' ''The Way to Fly'''. History The airline started when a person called Airplaneguy9 was looking for a way to open in to the airline business, operating a new low-cost airline. Sometime during May 2014, he found his opening and managed to purchase two Boeing 737-400s and five Boeing 737-300s from Interair South Africa. He opened the first route, Cape Town - Johannesburg on 14 July 2014 using a Boeing 737-300 (reg. ZS-TKK) operating as flight ZM001. The airline was initially not very successful, and reported a loss in the first two months of operation. However, the airline started to grow at a steady rate throughout the rest of 2014, opening more routes throughout southern Africa. During 2014, the airline carried 135,000 passengers. Originally, the logo was completely white, with no markings. Sometime around August, planes started being painted into a new livery. This was simply the words 'airzomiba' above the windows and 'The way to fly' below. The tail logo was the simple 'comma' logo. The airline opened 2015 with a new route, Cape Town - Port Louis, Mauritius. This offered new amounts of traffic to be generated. At this time, the airline started buying more planes from Interair and Safair, and expanded its 737-400 fleet to five aircraft, as well as buying a 737-200 Advanced aircraft which was 32 years old at the time. Passengers and traffic grew, and so did routes. On 21 May 2015, Air Zomiba announced it was going to buy its first 737-800. A few days later, it announced it was going to greatly expand the -400 fleet. On 2 June, the airline received its next 737-400. Over the next six months, it would acquire another six of these aircraft. One of these, ZS-TKS (delivered in September) would introduce Business Class (before that, the airline was all-Economy) and ZS-TKT (delivered in October) was ALL Business Class. On 10 September, the 737-800 was delivered straight from Boeing (reg. ZS-TKQ) and was painted in a special livery, with the belly of the plane being green, the outline being yellow, and the body bearing the words 'FIRST 737-800!'. This was the first draft of the current livery. Sadly, on 12 February 2016, the airline ceased operations due to hull losses of two of the -400s. This was a sad moment for the company. Planes, gates and assets were sold or stored at a special hangar. On 17 December 2016, after resigning as an Air Attica pilot following flight 257, Airplaneguy9 decided to save up to start up Air Zomiba again. This was earned using his savings from being a pilot during February 2017, and on 27 March 2017, Air Zomiba started anew with two 737-300s, six 737-400s and one 737-800. The airline, before closing down, had ordered two 737-400s from Safair and Comair, with an option for 10 more, and an order for two Airbus A320s from Airbus. Now, they had wanted to continue with the -400 order for two aircraft, but wait a while for the A320 order. On 12 July 2017, the airline gained all its routes before closing down. On 1 September 2017, the airline decided to expand greatly, in an extremely costly procedure: * They were going to update the livery, similar to the -800 they had. * They would order: ten 737-400s, nine 737-800s, six A320s, one 757-200, one 767-300, two MD82s and five DC-9-50s. * They would start services from Cape Town to London, a codeshare agreement with British Airways. * They would update their logo. * They would introduce First Class on their wide-body aircraft All in all, this was projected to cost almost US$800m, a fee that the airline would have to pay off. This was projected to have paid off by mid-2020. The airline opened 2018 with a new low-cost subsidiary, ZomibaLink. This would start servicing the smaller towns in southern Africa. The airline operated with all the 737-200s and one 737-300 On 24 March 2018, the airline expressed its want for new aircraft, and ordered 1 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on April 9. This was increased to 3 (1 from Boeing, 2 from Emirates) on April 11. On 4 August, it made its second big announcement: * It had carried over 500 million passengers altogether. * It was making a grand order of seven 737-400s, three 737-800s, one 767-300 and one A321. * New routes to Tokyo-Haneda, Sydney, Brisbane, Dubai, Frankfurt, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Cairo, Abu Dhabi and the Bahamas, all from Cape Town or Johannesburg and to kick off by 2022. * The debt from both orders to pay off between 2023 and 2025. The last ordered aircraft from September 2017, a 737-800, arrived on 21 November 2018. On January 3 2019, the airline sold off all its 737-300s, DC-9-50s and six 737-400s to ZomibaLink. Fleet Hubs * Cape Town Int'l Airport (South Africa) * Johannesburg O. R. Tambo Int'l Airport (South Africa) Destinations South Africa * Durban King Shaka Int'l Airport * George Airport * Bloemfontein Bram Fischer Airport * Pilanesburg Airport * Johannesburg Lanseria Int'l Airport Namibia * Windhoek Hosea Kutako Int'l Airport Botswana * Gaborone Sir Seretse Khama Int'l Airport Zimbabwe * Harare Robert Mugabe Int'l Airport * Bulawayo Airport Mozambique * Maputo Int'l Airport Madagascar * Antananarivo Ivato Int'l Airport Reunion * Sainte-Marie Roland Garros Int'l Airport Mauritius * Port Louis Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Int'l Airport Angola * Luanda Quatro de Fevereiro Int'l Airport Zambia * Lusaka Kenneth Kaunda Int'l Airport Malawi * Lilongwe Kamuzu Int'l Airport Tanzania * Dar Es Salam Julius Nyere Int'l Airport * Kilimanjaro Int'l Airport * Zanzibar Abeid Amani Karume Int'l Airport United Kingdom * London-Heathrow Airport Germany * Frankfurt-am-Main Int'l Airport United Arab Emirates * Dubai Int'l Airport * Abu Dhabi Int'l Airport * (starts 2023) Dubai Al-Maktoum Int'l Airport Japan * Tokyo-Haneda Int'l Airport Australia * Sydney Int'l Airport * Brisbane Int'l Airport * (starts 2021) Melbourne Airport USA * Orlando Int'l Airport * Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l Airport * (starts 2020) Miami Int'l Airport The Bahamas * Nassau Lynden Pindling Int'l Airport Accidents and incidents Air Zomiba flight 418 - a scheduled flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on 6 November 2015. The engine caught fire on climbout, and the 737-400 (reg. ZS-TKE) fell out of the sky 18 seconds after departure and slammed into an informal settlement, killing all 96 on the flight and 38 on the ground.The reason for the fire was suspected to be poor maintenance. Air Zomiba flight 423 - another Cape Town to Johannesburg flight on 2 December 2015. The plane, another 737-400 (reg. ZS-TKY), ditched in the Orange River mid-flight due to engine failure. Unfortunately, the back section of the aircraft broke apart, killing 12. Poor maintenance was again to blame. Air Zomiba flight 271 - a 737-800 flight (reg. ZS-ZMC) from Port Louis to Johannesburg on 12 May 2018 that ran into severe turbulence, injuring 3. The plane landed safely in Johannesburg with no other issues. The airline paid for the victims and gave all passengers 50% off and deeply apologized for the flight. Category:Airline